Friday night pizza was always a tradition in my house growing up; a large cheesy New York pizza with the best toppings and usually a few garlic knots or “pizza rolls” made an appearance to close out the week. I wish we had pizza here like we do back home where I grew up in New York, I love living in Massachussetts but pizza, bagels and good delis are all things you just can’t replicate here. Lately, I have been picking up that tradition and making my own pizzas on our pizza stone as a little Friday evening treat. It’s no New York slice, but I experiment a bit each week and have been getting better at making a quality pizza at home. Last week I was scanning the fridge and doing a survey of leftover ingredients to see what I could make for a quick meal, and lots of my pizza toppings were stacked up begging for a little love.Like most of ideas, I a little high-calorie light bulb went off above my head and I thought: what if I tossed all of my leftover pizza ingredients into a salad … and then added garlic knots on top to make sure it’s really not healthy at all. The only way you can get me to eat a salad is to make sure the lettuce and veggies are masked in cheese and come with a carb-y dipping side. It came out so tasty, topped with pepperoni and olives, peppers and onions, and chunks of provolone cheese. The garlic knots add a little extra oomph to the salad (and I snacked on a few extra on the side, because why not?). Get the full recipe below:

Pinned this one too – it would be great for serving a crowd….everyone could line up and make their own salad! That makes more sense than a stack of pizzas where “somebody” will always have a “problem” with at least one topping! 🙂 (We had Friday night pizza parties too, when kids were young – there was always a pile of discarded pepperoni, green pepper, or mushrooms at each daughters’ place – it drove me crazy!)